Permutations of zero-sumsets in a finite vector space

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we consider a finite-dimensional vector space 𝒫 {{\mathcal{P}}} over the Galois field GF ⁡ ( p ) {\operatorname{GF}(p)} , with p being an odd prime, and the family ℬ k x {{\mathcal{B}}_{k}^{x}} of all k-sets of elements of 𝒫 {\mathcal{P}} summing up to a given element x. The main result of the paper is the characterization, for x = 0 {x=0} , of the permutations of 𝒫 {\mathcal{P}} inducing permutations of ℬ k 0 {{\mathcal{B}}_{k}^{0}} as the invertible linear mappings of the vector space 𝒫 {\mathcal{P}} if p does not divide k, and as the invertible affinities of the affine space 𝒫 {\mathcal{P}} if p divides k. The same question is answered also in the case where the elements of the k-sets are required to be all nonzero, and, in fact, the two cases prove to be intrinsically inseparable.